Her First Trip to the ER

Our sweet friends in the "Panda" House just called to check on Piper and so I thought I should update my blog with the details, since we've returned home from the ER in fine shape.

I won't keep anyone in suspense one second longer: Piper's fine. She has a "hematoma" which is just a fancy medical word for a bruise, which is sort of... DUH!, b/c we could, like, SEE IT on her head! The ER doctor didn't find it necessary to do a CT scan- she said the bones in that part of the head are very hard and she didn't think there was any internal damage. Part of me feels better that at least an actual DOCTOR has looked at it, but her discharge instructions were for us to follow-up with our regular pediatrician in 7-10 days if the knot isn't any flatter. Uhhh, that's what I did today and he sent me to the ER, so what might he recommend in 7-10 days?? Anyway, she also recommended Motrin and ice for the inflammation. If you've ever tried to put an ice compress on a toddler's head, then you know that ranks up there with the World's Most Difficult Tasks, just below Using One's Arms as Wings to Fly to the Sun. So I don't think that's gonna be happening.

Our ER "stay" was actually quite quick. Which is sort of a shame b/c I was totally prepared to be there most of the evening. The pediatrician told me that if they had to do a CT, then Piper would have to be sedated, they'd do the scan and then we'd have to wait for her to come out of the sedation. He told me to be prepared to be there for several hours. My memory is not void of ER experiences, unfortunately, so I knew that just waiting for all of this could take some time. And since it's not everyday that you actually get to prepare for an ER visit, I took full advantage of our "lack of emergency" status to make sure we had enough stuff to make it through the evening at the hospital. I'll be honest- I'm not going to be winning any awards for World's Most Organized Woman, even though I like to pretend that I am, but tonight was my night!

I had Piper's bag packed with no less than:
7 diapers
a full package of wipes
2 Capri Suns
graham crackers
cheddar bunnies
string cheese
2 fruit cups
a frappucinno (for me!)
a change of clothes for Piper (including extra shoes- hey- you have to be prepared for ANYTHING, people.)
pajamas (in case we got out after bedtime)
crayons (Piper's latest fave!)
writing paper and
stickers (her other recent fave)

We were set for the loooong haul! And I think we spent a total of 45 actual minutes in the hospital. It may have been slightly more, but it definitely wasn't over an hour. I spent way more time driving there and driving home. Which is one of the many things I hate about where we live. It takes way too long to get places. But I digress.

Honestly, it was all so quick that I hadn't even finished filling out all the paperwork before the doctor was through seeing her. The nurse who discharged us even gave Piper a popsicle. That was genius... NOT. I let her have it in the car and tried not to get too uptight about the mess. Since our car is the only car in history to be recalled for being seriously uncool, I tried not to think about orange stickiness all over the seat. I put a bib on Piper and spread her "blankie" over her lap to keep the drips off her clothes, but when she started swinging the melting orange delight all over the place and grabbing it with her hands, my patience had ended. I traded her the popsicle for a capri sun and graham cracker and we both headed home in a more relaxed atmosphere. But evidence of the sweet treat can still be seen around her mouth and on her fingers. And probably on my car's leather interior, too.

So now we're home and everything has returned to normal. And my mom assured me that the contrary-streak that's recently struck my 20 month old sweet angel is less of a personality change brought about by serious head trauma and more about the fact that she's nearly 2 years old. We are in so much trouble!